Bahuchet rubbed his chin, assumed his mocking expression, and said at last:
"Give it to you, mademoiselle?—You are most worthy of it, certainly, but I have tried it on my hood, and it was not unbecoming to me; on the word of a Basochian, it made me quite the dandy! Ha! ha!"
"Not so loud, monsieur; you will wake my aunt!"
"Ah! to be sure; the honorable and venerable lady is taking a nap."
"When I ask you for this plume, which is of some value doubtless, I do not mean to suggest, monsieur, that you should make me a present of it; and I will beg you to accept this purse in exchange, not as the price of what I ask of you, but as a souvenir of me."
The little clerk hastily cast a furtive glance at the pretty velvet purse, which was not unlike an alms purse, and from which issued a sound very pleasant to his ear. He bowed to the floor before the noble maiden, and, almost kneeling, took the purse from her hand.
"I accept this in obedience to you, mademoiselle," he said; "to-morrow you shall have the plume. I am too happy to be able to do anything that is agreeable to you!"
"Very well, monsieur; now, leave us."
Bahuchet bowed once more, then smiled at Miretta, who answered his smile by a wrathful glance. But the little clerk hurried from the room and the house, paying no heed to the young lady's-maid's threatening expression. He was no sooner in the street than he opened the purse and found four gold pieces inside.
Thereupon he shouted for joy, tossed his cap in the air, bumped against the passers-by, and finally ran off at full speed, crying: